​83% of Rome’s police call in sick on New Year Eve

Some 83.5 percent of Rome’s police scheduled to work on New Year's Eve called in sick. Italian authorities are threatening disciplinary actions against those officers who never showed up as some 600,000 people welcomed 2015 on the streets of the capital.

Initially some 1,000
municipal police officers were scheduled to provide safety in
Rome on that night. Those 835 who failed to show up to work
mostly cited excuses such as donating blood or suddenly surfaced
physical "disabilities", La Repubblica reports.

Italy’s public service minister Marianna Madia warned on Twitter
that disciplinary action may be taken against the officers, once
the investigation of the incident is complete.

Following the embarrassing incident, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi
said that employment laws needed to be changed. “This is why
we are changing government employment laws in 2015,” he
tweeted. The government reforms of the civil service would not be
stopped, Madia added.

Yet police representatives stressed that Rome’s force is
seriously understaffed and overworked, and many of the officers
were expected to work overtime on New Year’s Eve.

“Managing holiday plans and staffing shortages were
underestimated,” said police union secretary Stefano
Giannini, according to AdnKronos news agency. “There are
5,900 of us and there should be 9,400. With these numbers we can
no longer provide a 24 hour service seven days a week.”